On this feast of Saint Martha, as text for my early morning prayer, I used a short excerpt from Edwina Gateway “Rediscovering and Claiming the Feminine Soul”. I wasn’t looking for the text. It found me. It’s been sitting on my desk for months and this morning it caught my attention. The couple of paragraphs may excite some and disturb others, console or irritate you. Whatever the case may be, I propose you honour whatever feelings stir within you, stay with them, follow them to the core, and ask why you’re feeling what you’re feeling.

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According to the Gospel of
John, Martha said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother (Lazarus) would not have
died. But even now I know that anything you ask in the name of God will be
given to you.” And she stands right in front of the tomb, and says,
“Well, you are the Christ, the son of the Living God. So do it!” And
Jesus moved forward at the command of the homemaker, and said, “Lazarus,
come forth,” and the dead man rose again. The greatest miracle in the New
Testament - the resurrection of the dead - is very clearly associated with a
woman, a homemaker, who says, “Come on, man. You know what is possible. For you
are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.“

Who else said those words? Peter.
"And for this I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven,”
said Jesus. My question is: Where are Martha’s keys?Think about it! She said
the same thing. Doesn’t she deserve to have, and need to claim, the keys of the
kingdom? And why haven’t we women asked for them? For heaven’s sake, let’s ’s
claim them - not let them be the prerogative of one man when a woman said the
same thing as he, and in conjunction with the greatest miracle of Jesus, while
Peter spoke in the midst of doubt, and later betrayed three times. The woman
stayed faithful to Jesus of Nazareth. I’m not saying discard the man. But let’s
be fair.

Excerpt: From selected passages of
Edwina’s three-hour, two tape series called “Rediscovering and Claiming
the Feminine Soul”